Director's Cut: TV on the Radio: "You"

Director's Cut features conversations with music video directors about their creations. The men and women behind the camera are often overlooked in today's YouTube era, so we aim to highlight their hard work here while showcasing the best videos currently linking around the Internet. A little behind-the-scenes dirt couldn't hurt, too.

New York-based director Barney Clay's video for TV on the Radio's "You" is based on a simple, made-up premise: A year after breaking up, TVOTR gather at a diner to catch up. They're all up to something ridiculous-- singer-guitarist Kyp Malone has fallen in with a "Peanuts"-inspired live action role playing community-- but the video focuses on the travails of singer Tunde Adebimpe, who happens to be passing his time performing on desolate NYC streets in a stupendous wig and getup straight out of Purple Rain.

Clay has directed clips for Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Gnarls Barkley, and his "fucked up interpretation" of glam photographer Mick Rock's classic David Bowie video "Life on Mars" will be on display at a Creators Project event in Paris this weekend, June 9-11. He's also working on a feature-length doc on Rock as well.

Click on to watch "You" and read our Q&A with Clay, which touches on the logistics of getting doves to fly in New York City and motel room porn.

Barney Clay: It's a good example of how not having enough money and time can actually be an advantage. I had written down about 20 different ideas, and then went down the line with Tunde; the Prince one was at the bottom of the list. I was nervous pitching it to them because I know the band very well-- and I know they're funny guys-- but they have quite a serious image, to say the least. But they were like, "That's great."

Pitchfork: I thought the whole band was surprisingly funny in the opening dinner scene. How planned-out was the dialogue?

BC: I gave them a guideline but basically just let them go, and each one went off for ages. There's at least another five minutes of hilarity that we cut, like one scene where this girl comes in, spots the band, and is like, "Hey, you're the Roots!"

Pitchfork: Did anybody yell stuff at Tunde while he was walking around Coney Island in that outfit?

Pitchfork: I was curious about that "When Does Cry" shot where he frees the bird...

BC: I wanted him to release some doves but, apparently, if you release doves into the wild that have been brought up in captivity, they die. But then my producer found this amazing website called I Dove New York-- it's this guy who basically raises white homing pigeons. So this guy came down and released them where we were shooting in Staten Island, and then they flew on home.

Pitchfork: What was your favorite moment from the shoot?

BC: We shot the motel stuff last, and it was really hard finding one because if you go around anywhere outside of New York looking for a motel to film in, they're all taken by people trying to shoot porn, basically. Nobody would lend us a motel. So we eventually ended up right at the bottom of Staten Island. It was pretty gross, and there was only hardcore porn on the TV, no other channels. They offered us a room with a jacuzzi in it-- and while the idea of Tunde sitting in the jacuzzi with this wig on seemed great-- I just couldn't cross that line.

Anyway, while shooting there, Tunde started crying, and it was just awesome-- it's pretty rare to see someone give himself over to a music video like that.